Thundercats: The Stranger
by junkerey
Summary: A space capsule bearing a Thundercats logo, and with a badly-injured passenger, lands on Earth. The stranger raises doubt and suspicion among the six Thundercats (Lion-O, Cheetara, Panthro, Tygra, WilyKit and WilyKat).
1. Chapter 1

"Look."

Tygra's sharp eyes caught the movement in the sky before anyone else. The single, sharp word from his lips caused the rest of the Thundercats- Panthro, Cheetara, WilyKit and WilyKat- to lower their shovels and stop the morning's work in silent obedience, as they turned their attentions towards the area in the sky where he pointed. They hadn't anticipated any trouble, but they all knew trouble could come along at any moment, and those animalistic instincts kept them on the alert.

The strange planet that they'd crash-landed on only a year earlier, which turned out to be the only inhabitable planet in that particular galaxy, had not been completely inhospitable. After several months of establishing a base, building transport vehicles and otherwise utilizing what remained from their crashed ship, they had managed to resurrect the culture that they lost when they fled the dying planet of Thundera. Not a day went by when each of them remembered the lava maelstrom of Thundera as it exploded.

They'd returned, time and again since their arrival on Third Earth, to scavenge whatever parts they could from the crash site. Some days, their digging uncovered vast sections of the still-intact hull. On others, such as that morning's task, they left aside the larger machines in favor of shovels, so as not to ruin the more delicate equipment that might still be buried in the earth.

"It's metal," Panthro remarked. He squinted as the sun glinted off the hull of what appeared to be a small vessel, then lifted one hand to shelter his eyes. The rapid downward descent of the unknown item suggested that it had no propulsion of its own, otherwise it would have been under better control of whatever pilot might have been on board.

"It's going to crash!" Cheetara exclaimed. "In the Dead-Dry Flats, by the looks of it."

Tygra nodded. "Good. Whatever it is, at least over there, no harm can come to anyone on the ground."

In tandem, WileyKit and WileyKat wiped the sweat from their brows and dropped their shovels. The shoveling had been harder, dirtier and less productive than they'd expected, and with the interruption of a mysterious intruder to the planet, they eagerly jumped towards their space boards.

"We'll look into it!" WilyKit told the others as he and his sister jumped onto the smooth metal boards and hovered in place.

Cheetara shook her head. "Not alone, you won't."

"We're not alone," WilyKit countered. "There's two of us."

"Three," she corrected them. Cheetara glanced over at Panthro and Tygra. "You should probably bring the Thundertank. It's possible there's someone inside, but even if there isn't, that's more metal we could use for our own purposes."

Panthro nodded as Tygra kept his attention on the vessel. As it flew closer to the earth, it appeared to be little more than a capsule, not unlike the pods that they'd all slept in on their journey from the ruins of Thundera. After a moment, Tygra looked back down and nodded to Cheetara.

"Be careful. We'll be right behind you."

Cheetara had barely begun to sprint in the direction of the Dead-Dry Flats, with WilyKit and WilyKat close behind, when the object passed out of view. She kept her pace slow enough for the twins' vehicle to keep up with her, rather than going at top speed to reach the area, but the other two Thundercats still had to push their boards to the limit just to keep her in sight. Each movement of her arms and legs reflected a comfortable, controlled balance of movement, and her long hair flew behind her as she relished the warm wind against her face.

The hotter, less friendly air from the Dead-Dry Flats soon replaced the comfortable breeze she'd been running into. Too far from the crash to either hear or feel the impact, Cheetara relied on her instinctive sense of direction to locate whatever had fallen from the sky. Sure enough, she came upon the area with almost uncanny accuracy. Only later would it occur to her that something beyond normal calculations pulled her in that particular direction, but at the time, the low buzzing that echoed in her brain meant nothing; she barely noticed it, and if she had thought about it, she'd have dismissed it as the sound of the space boards approaching from behind her.

Cheetara stopped running, and stood there, looking straight ahead. When WilyKit and WilyKat arrived, they each took a slow jump off their boards and, also, stood in one place and stared.

"It can't be," WilyKit whispered.

"It's…" WilyKat began to reply in the same hushed tones, then closed his mouth and swallowed.

There, on the cracked desert floor, lay a shattered tube of metal with the round, red-and-black symbol of the Thundercats emblazoned across the top. The landing had been more than unkind to the vessel's occupant, but they could make out little more than a dark misshapen lump under a heavy cloak. One hand… no, one paw… stuck out from the black material, the short fur as midnight-black as the garment that covered its owner. And beneath that paw, a puddle of dark red blood crept out into the sunlight. Too much red, spreading far too fast. The paw twitched once, then lay still.

Cheetara pulled in a breath and glanced behind her, in the direction they'd come from. It would be a while before the Thundertank made it to their location. Quite a while. Too long.

"We have to help," she said in a breathless voice.

Yet even as she said it, she felt a sense of dread creep up on her. Some irrational part of her mind told her to back away even as she moved forward, told her to not touch the small form that she gently turned onto its back and gathered up in its cloak, and told her to run away even as she, WilyKit and WilyKat moved the limp and damaged body onto one of the space boards, then began the quick but careful trip back towards home.


	2. Chapter 2

"You should have left him out there to die, Cheetara."

Tygra looked over his shoulder at her, then turned and stood with his head down and his lips pressed together, and scrubbed his hands together under the forceful stream of water from the sink.

The stranger's blood took some time to remove from Tygra's hands, yet Cheetara said nothing and simply waited for Tygra to finish washing up. He'd worked long and hard to patch together the battered body that she, WilyKit and WilyKat had rescued from the desert. She had assisted him in the task, as difficult as she'd found it. Her initial misgivings hadn't diminished as they worked to piece together the not-Thundercat that came crashing to earth.

Not-Thundercat. She didn't know what to call it, other than "him," for though it had a slender and almost androgynous shape, its unclothed gender could not be mistaken. But it had very little in common with Thundercats she knew. It had jet-black fur from head to toe, paws with digits too short to be called fingers as she knew them, and limbs that clearly functioned better on four legs than two.

And he had been gravely injured. How the creature had survived transport to Cats' Lair, much less the emergency surgery that Tygra performed on him, she couldn't even begin to guess. Something had kept it alive beyond normal expectations, much like how the crash should have killed him on impact. She hadn't spoken to Tygra about it, but as they'd worked on it, she'd felt a distinct tingling in the atmosphere around the bed. But she couldn't put a name to it, and chose to say nothing rather than distract Tygra with some inexplicable metaphysical impression.

When he'd finally washed the last of the stranger from his hands, Tygra grabbed a towel and vigorously rubbed it between his hands, then tossed it aside and walked out. Cheetara hesitated, then followed him down the corridor and to the room they'd set up for the stranger.

They stood in the doorway and watched the stranger breathe. The broken ribs prevented him from drawing a full breath, and an unhealthy rattle emanated from his open mouth. One tooth had half-broken off. His left arm (foreleg?) had been badly broken, and lay beside him in a thick cast. A gouge along his lower abdomen had caused the most bleeding, and though they'd done their best to cover all the damaged areas, his injuries had been too numerous and too extensive for them to do much.

"He's going to die," Cheetara breathed.

"He shouldn't be here," Tygra responded in a harsh whisper. "In every sense of the word. He shouldn't still be alive, and he shouldn't be on this planet, and he shouldn't be in Cats' Lair." His shoulders twitched. "I can't explain it, but my every instinct is telling me that he's dangerous."

"But who is he? And why was he in a Thundercat craft?"

Tygra could only shake his head and walk away. Cheetara felt an obligation to stay behind, to keep watch on the stranger so that he wouldn't be alone, but she knew that she, nor any other Thundercat, could do anything more for him. Instead, she followed Tygra to the control room, where Lion-O and the others waited for an update.

They arrived to find Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats, pacing the control room floor, his hands behind his back and his attention on the doorway. Panthro sat at his station, and WilyKit and WilyKat sat at theirs, and the four discussed what they knew of the situation in low voices. Snarf, curled up in his bed against the wall, contributed little to the conversation outside of his usual "snarf, snarf" sounds, but watched everyone with a curious, nervous look. Tygra and Cheetara had barely taken a few steps inside when Lion-O began his forthright questions about the stranger. The others chimed in with questions of their own, but outside of updating everyone on the stranger's medical condition- "very grave, I believe," Tygra explained- not much could be established.

"We'll have to see if he makes it through the night," Lion-O said. "We don't know if he can even respond to us, when and if he wakes up, but we've got to try to get some answers, if we can."

"I don't like it," Panthro grumbled.

"Neither do I," Tygra agreed. He turned to Lion-O. "We all feel it, Lion-O. This… animal-"

"I know," Lion-O interrupted. "I know. Whatever it is, it had no place being in a Thundercat ship. From what you brought back from the crash site, according to the data in the pod's memory banks, is that it came from Thundera. But we've been talking, and we've never known a creature like this one."

"Not quite," Tygra interjected. "We do know of one, but it's only rumor." He paused. "The shadow-line walkers."

An uncomfortable silence fell over the rooms.

"Nonsense," Snarf spoke up. "That's just childish rumor and nonsense. Why, I used to tell Lion-O stories about the shadow-line walkers all the time. They're just stories."

"What if they aren't?" WilyKit asked. "Or what if there really were shadow-line walkers on Thundera, and we just made up stories about them to make them even scarier?"

Lion-O scoffed at the idea. "Ridiculous."

Just then, a strange voice cut through the room

"Not entirely," it said in a shaky voice.

The Thundercats spun around to face the doorway. The stranger stood there, using the doorframe to support its weight, its broken body hidden beneath the still-bloody cloak. He studied the faces that, likewise, studied him.

"Hate is a part of every species." The stranger forced the words out, each breath a gasp of pain and effort. "And what better way to hate something than to be afraid of it, eh?"


	3. Chapter 3

"You shouldn't be up yet," Cheetara chastised him. "You're still weak."

"I shouldn't even be alive," the stranger countered, his speech slow and forced.

"You're bleeding again," Tygra remarked with some alarm, as he pointed to the fresh line of blood along the white bandages at the stranger's stomach. The creature glanced down with unnatural calm, then settled himself into the closest chair and pulled the cloak over his body to hide the bandages.

"It's fine," came the harsh reply. "We must talk."

Tygra stepped forward. "I think—"

" _I_ think," he interrupted in a sharp, commanding tone, "that if you want answers to your questions, you had best let me talk."

An uneasy silence fell over the Thundercats, and Tygra moved back to his former position. Lion-O cocked his head to one side.

"Very well, then. Can you tell us where you are from?" Lion-O asked.

"I am from Thundera," the creature replied in a calm voice. "My name… well, I've had different names in different times. Here, on this planet, I was once known as Vail."

"Vail. Are you from here?"

"No, my people are from Thundera, back when it had a different name. When the planet was in its infancy. That's where I was born, and where my father was born. Before that?" He shrugged. "It's hard to say where we come from, exactly. We never kept written records. 'Where' has never been any more important to us than 'when.'"

"Time travelers," Tygra inserted.

Vail gave a slow nod. "But that doesn't matter right now. That explanation is unimportant." He gave a painful exhale of laughter. "I'd like to say, 'it can wait' but I doubt that I have much time left. However, there is one that cannot." He pointed to the sword at Lion-O's hip. "Bring me the Sword of Omens. I have to show you something."

"You can't touch it," Lion-O warned him. "It won't let you."

"It is the Eye that interests me."

Cheetara looked over at him in concern. "Lion-O, don't. The sword will hurt him."

"The Eye won't," Vail remarked in a quiet, certain tone.

Lion-O hesitated, then stepped forward and removed the Sword of Omens from his hip. He held it out towards Vail with a feeling of trepidation… and as a bit of a challenge. Some small part of him still mistrusted this stranger in their midst, with his air of inner strength and control, and he wanted to see what the Sword of Omens would do.

Vail glanced up at Lion-O's face, gave him a small smile, then stretched his injured right hand towards the stone and touched one fingertip to its glassy surface.

At first, nothing happened—which baffled Lion-O more than anything. The sword did not jump to its own defense and blast out at the intruding hand, as it always had towards others (and as Lion-O half-hoped that it would). Instead, the Eye began to emit a faint red light as it awakened. But instead of the black cat's-eye aperture opening wider, it sealed itself and the reddish color of the stone changed to blue. A white, moon-like crescent formed along one edge, and a light cast up from the crescent to fill the room with an ethereal blue glow.

Everyone gasped in surprise at the change except for Vail, who balanced his bandaged right paw above the bluish-white glow. He held it there, and the pain etched across his face began to ease. He pulled in a deeper breath, closed his eyes for a moment, then managed a slight smile.

"You see?" he said. "It knows me. It knows me."

Vail withdrew his paw from the beam of light, which faded back to red and evaporated as the Eye returned to its normal appearance. He then chewed at and slowly unwrapped the bandage with his teeth, then held up his palm for them to see. Everyone gasped again as the ragged, bloody wound across the pads dried up and closed right before their eyes.

"It healed you!" Lion-O exclaimed.

"Only a bit," Vail replied with a frown. He balled the loose bandage up and tossed it aside. "At the very least, I can breathe a bit better. If the stone were not in the sword, I could hold it in my hands and it would heal me completely, without so much as a scar. But because of an error in judgment by my ancestors, that can never be. The two are forever united."

"How do you know so much about the Eye?" Panthro demanded.

Vail gave him a confused look. "You have no idea where the Eye of Thundera comes from, do you?" He glanced around at the confused and blank faces of the Thundercats, then lowered his head. "Forgotten. So much sacrifice, so much bloodshed… and it's been forgotten." He sighed and looked up. "The Eye was a gift," he explained in a cold, patient tone. His head swiveled towards the sword at Lion-O's hip. "My grandfather gave it to the Thundercats many, many centuries ago. It was the last item that we had to barter with, the last thing in our possession that we thought would preserve our race."

"What happened?" Cheetara asked as she ran a nervous hand through her hair. "Where have your people gone?"

"Dead, of course," Vail replied in a surprised tone. "Killed in an invasion by the Thundercats."

"An invasion!" Tygra exclaimed.

"We would never have done that!" Panthro argued. "The Thundercats have always been a peaceful people—"

"Perhaps you were," Vail interrupted in a tired but firm voice. "After the obliteration of my race, I do believe that you did live a peaceful existence. As was your luxury, because Thundera then became your planet. But it took our deaths to make your future a quiet one." He closed his eyes and bowed his head again. "Your people had to come face-to-face with just how barbaric they could be," he whispered, "before they could be anything else."

Before anyone could respond to his words, or react in any way, Vail released a long sigh and his body went limp, and he dropped to the floor with a thump. Tygra immediately went to him and pushed the cloak aside.

"We've got to get him back to his room," he ordered. "His stitches have re-opened."

Tygra looked up at the others as they gathered around, and he rested one hand on the dark red stain that spread across the neatly-wrapped bandages around Vail's stomach.


	4. Chapter 4

"You mentioned that here, on this planet, your name is Vail," Cheetara said. "What did you mean by that?"

"I meant that I knew this planet once," Vail confessed. "I have been here, many times throughout its life span. I was given the name by the humans who lived here."

He leaned to one side and shuffled his paw through the dirt, a sad smile on his face. Weeks had passed since he'd first crash-landed in a Thundercat-built pod- a gift, he said, "pressed upon me so that I might travel the universe in a more… natural manner"- but like any mechanical device, it had failed upon entering the planet's atmosphere.

For the past week since Vail first felt well enough to go outside, he, Cheetara, WilyKit and WilyKat took advantage of the warm summer days and made widening circles around Cats' Lair, helping him to improve his strength and his endurance. But Vail's presence had created a bit of a rift in the Thundercats. Panthro, Tygra and Lion-O kept their distance from him, suspicious and resentful of his presence, but not merciless enough to turn him out of the Lair. Or at least, not yet.

Vail went on to explain, "It used to be that humans were the dominating intelligence. Oh, other animals had intelligence, too, but the humans were the only ones with the language and skills and adaptability that led them to control the planet." He raised his head and gazed over the horizon. "Long ago, they built many cities and many wonderful inventions. They also built instruments of war and destruction, and tore at one another's throats. Not so very different than other creatures on other planets."

"What happened to this planet?" WilyKit spoke up. "There are ruins all around. Some aren't too far from here-"

"Would you like to see them?" WilyKat interjected. "We can take you there."

A look of mild interest crossed Vail's face. "Soon, perhaps. But I don't have the strength for it right now." He looked away. "Ruins. Once a great civilization. Now ruins," he muttered.

By the tone of his voice, Cheetara understood that he didn't just lack the physical strength. He had once seen this world at what had perhaps been the peak of its existence, teeming with life, but now… what did it have to offer him?

Cheetara shook off such gloomy thoughts and smiled up at the twins. "Come on, it's about time to eat. Let's race back," she challenged them.

"Vail will race you!" WilyKit put one hand on Vail's shoulder. "He said yesterday that he's even faster than you, Cheetara!"

"Oh, really?" Cheetara smiled and crossed her arms over her chest. "Now that I'd like to see."

Vail returned her smile and pushed himself off the ground. "Then let's race."

A look of concern came over her features. "But your arm—"

"My arm is fine," he interrupted. Along with the massive wound across his abdomen, the damage done to his left arm had been one of the most persistent injury that Vail had to deal with. Except for when the Sword of Omens healed Vail's hand and eased his breathing, Lion-O would not permit him to touch the sword again—which had caused more than a few arguments as Cheetara watched Vail struggle to recover from the crash without the aid of its magic.

"I've been locked inside," Vail complained. "Come on. Let's have some fun."

He lined himself up between two young saplings and crouched down, then waited for Cheetara to assume a runner's stance next to him. WilyKit and WilyKat laughed and moved to one side, then WilyKit raised one hand.

"Ready? Go!" he cried out.

As WilyKit brought his hand down, Vail and Cheetara shot away from their starting positions. For the first kilometer, Cheetara could feel her competitor's presence a few feet behind her, but she felt confident that she would be able to hold him off…

A rush of wind swept her hair to one side at that moment, and Cheetara's eyes widened in genuine surprise as Vail shot past her. Although she'd only been running at three-quarters of her possible speed, she could tell that even with more effort on her part, there would have been no way to surpass him. She had never known any creature who could produce such an incredible speed.

A few minutes later, Vail slowed and then stopped at the edge of the clearing in front of the Thundercat fortress. He let out several panting breaths and braced himself against a nearby tree as Cheetara caught up with him. His expression looked serious at first, but Cheetara could see a glint of humor in his eyes as she padded to a stop beside him.

"That was incredible!" Cheetara confessed. She let out a laugh of astonishment. "It's been such a long time since anyone has been able to outrun me."

She smiled and knelt down beside Vail, but her look of happiness faded as she watched him slump to the ground, his left arm curled up to his body and his eyes half-closed. She put one hand on his head and leaned closer to him.

"Are you all right?"

Vail closed his eyes and rolled onto his side. "Yes," he managed to say. "Fine. But it always tires me so…"

His words trailed off as he slipped into a sudden, heavy sleep. Cheetara stood up and took a few steps back in confusion, then knelt beside him again and gathered up his muscular, compact body into her arms. She carried him back to the Lair with slow, steady steps, his head cradled against her shoulder and the warm scent of his body mingling with her sweat-drenched skin. The smell of him seemed to intoxicate her as she brought him up the elevator to the living quarters, and she barely noticed the weight of him the entire time.

When they arrived at his room, Cheetara hesitated outside the door and looked around the empty hallway, then tightened her grip on his limp body and stepped inside. She slid Vail between the cool sheets of the bed, then fumbled with the fastener around his neck and removed his cloak. As she draped the black cloth over a nearby chair, Vail moaned and rolled onto his back. His eyes remained closed as one paw fumbled for but could not find the edge of the sheet.

"Here," she said in a soft voice. She reached down and brought the sheet up to him, and he clutched it under his chin with a nod of appreciation.

"Thank you," he said with a sigh. His eyes cracked open. "I'm… sorry." Vail drew in a breath and forced out each word with obvious effort.

"You shouldn't have run," she chastised him in a light tone.

"Had to."

"But why? Why would you do that if you knew it would exhaust you?"

A weary smile emerged, and his other paw came out from beneath the sheet and stretched out in her direction. Cheetara slipped her hand into his, and she tilted to one side in confusion.

"For you."

The simple answer touched her heart, and Cheetara found that she had begun to lean over him in response, her mouth half-open as she inhaled. She caught herself and pulled her hand out of his grip as she moved back.

"Vail—" she started to say, but the words of protest could not come. It had been so long, so very long for her since she had been with another in that way…

Vail reached out for her again as he sensed her needs, and she linked her grip with his again and let him pull her onto the bed without further protest. She slipped beneath the sheet with him and the two of them cuddled there together, their hands linked together next to her chest and the soft fur of his stomach pressed against her back. She smiled to herself as she felt the smooth exhale of his breath against her ear.

"I wish…" he breathed.

"Shhh. You rest," she ordered in a soft voice. "Okay?"

"Yes," he said in a slurred voice as he fell back to sleep.

Cheetara squeezed her hands against his and smiled again, then closed her eyes and, although she hadn't felt the least bit tired before, she fell asleep as well.


	5. Chapter 5

"You've been avoiding me."

Tygra spun his seat around from the console of Cats' Lair, his shoulders hunched and his eyes narrowed at the unexpected sound of Vail's voice behind him. He eased himself back into the chair and tried to assume a casual air.

"I thought it best not to interfere with your rehabilitation," Tygra said in a flat tone. "WilyKit, WilyKat and Cheetara have made you their pet project, as it were. The rest of us are preoccupied with our own tasks." He paused. "Are you feeling all right? I saw you collapse earlier, and Cheetara carried you inside. I, ah… figured if Cheetara had come and asked for help, then I, ah…"

"It's all right." Vail gave a slow nod. "You're under no obligation to act in the role of physician. We were racing. For fun. But to race someone like Cheetara, who can run at such an incredible speed, requires extraordinary abilities from my own body. She has a natural ability, and while I can accomplish such feats, it is not without a cost." He paused. "Like time travel. You weren't wrong there, when you keyed in to my words."

Tygra scratched at his neck. "So you can do it?"

With a sad smile, Vail nodded. "It is not without a cost," he repeated. "Time and place are ours to visit, though it is often at great risk due to how draining it is for us, and how vulnerable it leaves us. And there are certain rules attached to traveling. Codes, really, that my people have lived by, for our own protection as well as for the protection of others."

"So what is the connection between your people and the Thundercats, exactly?"

In one neat movement, Vail swept his cape under him and sat on the floor, then put his paws in front of him and pressed the pads of his feet together.

"One of our codes," he explained, "is that if we must travel, we should strive to visit uninhabited planets. As you can imagine, this talent means that we have the ability to alter destinies of entire galaxies, and there are others throughout existence who possess similar powers- the difference being, they actually use them for that purpose, to change events. But it is not and has never been our way to be deliberately interactive."

"And, what about accidentally?"

Vail shrugged. "It's inevitable that we will cross paths with other species."

"Like Thundercats."

"Hmm, yes and no." Vail tapped the floor with one paw. "We were on Thundera first. The planet had another name that we had given it, but with the rise of the Thundercat civilization, we… well…" He closed his eyes. "As I said, it is not our way to be interactive. When we must coexist, we are the ones who bow to the will of others. Lest we let our knowledge encumber yours." He gazed at Tygra again, then tilted his head to one side. "That is why we accepted your race as the dominating one. Lion-O."

Tygra looked past Vail to see Lion-O standing in the open doorway.

"We came first," Vail continued, as Lion-O moved to stand beside Tygra. "It's complicated to explain the evolution of the Thundercats, but know that my people are your ancestors. We are why you are partially cat-like. As you all grew and changed, and became the major force on Thundera, we stepped back and watched those changes take place- the physical developments, the technological advancements, and your growing sense of savagery."

"The Thundercats were peaceful," Lion-O protested.

"Just as Panthro said before," Vail replied in a low voice. "And as I said before, that peace came only after our demise. And I know that not from rumor and superstition, but because I, myself, was there to see it centuries ago." Vail swung his attention back to Tygra. "One of the costs of time travel," he revealed, "is that our aging process reverses. We grow old, then when we pass into the world in-between, we grow young again. We forestall the shadow of death each time we journey."

"Shadow-line walkers," Tygra mumbled.

Vail sneered. "The legend of old. The 'boogeyman' of the Thundercats. Do you know how that phrase came about? Because we 'walked the line' of two worlds, past and future." He paused and rubbed one hand over his face. "We did age, and have families, and grow old, and we could be killed, but to outsiders we looked like a static race. Immortal, almost. And what could be more terrifying than that? To recognize the inevitability of your own deaths, yet live side-by-side with those who, by all indications, have no such limitations? It is something that fosters… resentment. Confusion. Anger. And, ultimately, the need to strike down the very thing you fear."

Lion-O's hands clenched into fists. "What happened?"

Vail sighed. "You should all know. Gather your Thundercats together, Lion-O. Bring everyone to my room, and I will show you."

With that, he got to his feet again. Although he tried to stand without incident, his earlier exertion of running with Cheetara showed, and he stumbled from two feet onto four before he managed to regain the two-legged stance that he'd most commonly used throughout his recovery. He winced as he curled his left arm closer to his body, and Tygra stood up with some concern, though Lion-O did not even flinch.

Lion-O spoke up as Vail headed towards the doorway. "What do you mean, 'see'? How can you show us the past?"

"Not without cost," he muttered. "But it must be done."


	6. Chapter 6

Seated next to Vail, Cheetara could feel the tension in the room as the other Thundercats gathered around Vail's bed. Although she wanted to reach over and take his hand, as reassurance to him as much for herself, she restrained herself, and quietly folded her hands into her lap as they waited for Vail to speak.

Among themselves, prior to obeying Vail's request that they join him in his chamber, they'd discussed the troubled past of Thundera that he had told Tygra and Lion-O earlier. Panthro and Lion-O did not shy away from sharing their suspicions- namely that Vail's story held no truth to it. Tygra, WilyKit and WilyKat had each adopted a wait-and-see attitude. They felt less inclined to immediately discount what they knew nothing about.

Cheetara, however, had no such doubts. Vail had explained to them that each extraordinary task he performed came with a physical penalty, and that he had no choice but to live with the constant reward/risk factor- on those instances where he felt the strain to be necessary. His still-recovering body, combined with the fun competition, had already worn him down. Now, he would embark on yet another one, which he predicted would bring at least a day of unconsciousness. She knew that liar would not put himself through such punishment.

"I would like to thank you for taking care of me," Vail began. He turned his head on the pillow to look at Cheetara, then to scan the faces of the other Thundercats. "And rest assured, after I have recovered from what I'm about to do, I will leave. We have no place together in this universe. And you're about to see why."

With that, Vail closed his eyes, tilted his head back and released a long sigh.

The Thundercats grouped together as everything in the room, including Vail himself, dissolved to reveal a rocky, mountainous landscape. The evening sky hung blood-red above them, accented by the layers of rain clouds that had yet to release their moisture. A cool wind blew harshly against the short, dried bushes around them, and tumbleweeds blew past, but not so much as a hair stirred on the group's heads. Everyone except for Panthro looked around with fear.

"We haven't gone anywhere," Panthro pointed out. He tapped his foot, and a solid metallic noise filled the air. "I can feel the floor of Cats' Lair."

"You're right," Lion-O agreed. He reached down to try and pick up a nearby stone, but his hand passed through it. "This is an illusion."

"No."

They turned around at the sound of Vail's voice. Unlike them, Vail stood with his cape whipping about him in the fierce wind, his eyes half-shut against the dust that swirled around him.

"At least," he corrected himself, "it is not an illusion for me. What you may see is a hologram, but I am here, in this time, at the moment when this happens. It is happening now."

Vail pointed off to the side, and the Thundercats turned as one to watch the action in the canyon below them. Waves of armored vehicles and foot soldiers swarmed over the terrain, firing rockets and rushing into what appeared to be a series of caves. Every creature that they could see wore or carried the Thundercats symbol- on their transports, on their shields, and on their uniforms, but the people they saw looked… cruder, somehow. Less refined than what they, themselves have become.

"They look so primitive! Not like us at all!" Tygra exclaimed.

"They are proto-Thundercats," Vail explained with caution in his voice. "Not like you. I can see that you, yourselves, are Thundercats, but not a part of this group. Clearly, many generations have passed for your bodies and talents to evolved to this degree."

Cheetara studied Vail's guarded stance and the suspicious way in which he looked at them. "You… you don't know we are, do you?"

He gave a sharp shake of his head. "I can see by the aura around you that I'm the one who brought you here," he replied, "but no, at this point in my personal history, I have not met you. Nor am I sure why you are here. Perhaps we can both learn-"

A bone-chilling cheer of vicious triumph rose up from below, muted by the angle of the canyon and the impending storm above them.

"What is happening?" WilyKit asked.

Vail half-turned and looked down. "This is our last stronghold, here on Thundera. The heart of our kingdom, all that remains of us throughout the universe. The Thundercats have seized control and are now slaughtering those of us who remain."

Another hideous cheer filled the air, one that made even Lion-O shiver.

"We lost so many," Vail whispered.

"But, but why?" Lion-O demanded. "Why would they do such a thing?"

"Look."

Vail pointed beyond the battlefield below to the red sunset, except that the sun had all but disappeared behind the clouds at that point. There, in the sky, casting an evil light down upon the violent scene, hovered an all-too-familiar sight.

"Mumm-Ra!" they cried in unison.

Vail slowly crouched down behind a nearby outcropping of rock. "Mumm-Ra can't see any of you," he said. "You are not here. You are not in danger."

"But you are," Cheetara pointed out.

Vail did not reply.

"You should run!" WilyKit insisted. "If Mumm-Ra finds you-"

"He never does," Vail interrupted. "I have been here several times before, and have seen this scene from outside and from within. "For you, in your 'now," I am here. Safe above everything. But there is another time-version of me in the royal chamber, watching as they slit my father's throat while he sits on his throne. And yet another 'me' is almost directly behind Mumm-Ra-" he nodded towards the setting sun, "-hearing his commands and watching those early Thundercats do his bidding. Still another 'me' will arrive to see the aftermath, and walk among the dead."

"But Mumm-Ra is our enemy!" Tygra objected.

"For those proto-Thundercats, he is their master. Those older versions of yourselves are his 'mutants'- though he has yet to enlist mutants into his armies of darkness. It is because of this moment, and this failure, that he looks for others to enslave." Vail glanced at Lion-O. "Mumm-Ra wants the Eye of Thundera and all its powers. But the Thundercats have tricked him. Their king told him that the Eye is in the possession of my people, even though we gave it to the Thundercats long ago. My grandfather bargained with it, and gave it to your king, in exchange for this- a last, isolated piece of land to live on."

Cheetara gasped. "So the Thundercats lied and kept the Eye for themselves!"

"And in doing so," Lion-O added, "they led Mumm-Ra right to you."

"This was a tradeoff that your king made with himself, to sacrifice our lives, in exchange for a chance to free your people from Mumm-Ra's grip." He said the words with sadness, but not anger. "The Eye was embedded in the Sword of Omens years ago, and the Sword masks the Eye's power from Mumm-Ra. Those below us know nothing of their king's secret, only that they were commanded to attack and eliminate us."

Vail pulled his cloak over his head as a warship passed overhead, and he all but disappeared, blending into the rock face like a shadow.

"Soon," he explained, his voice echoing low and steady from beneath the darkness of his hood, "Mumm-Ra will leave and the Thundercats will gather back in their kingdom. It is only then that they will discover that, once the Sword of Omens is lifted high above the population, and the Eye of Thundera is called upon for guidance, that they can break free of Mumm-Ra's spell. Too late for us. Far too late."

The world around them began to shimmer.

"Wait!" Tygra called out. "How did you know to come and meet us here, long before you even knew us?"

Vail's eyes glowed red from the darkness of his cloak.

"The vibrations of the universe," Vail explained, "have directed our people for eternity. We show up where, and when, we are supposed to, according to those vibrations. 'Feelings,' if you will. I don't quite know how to explain it to creatures such as yourselves, who have not been directed in such away. You wouldn't understand."

Just before the stranger-Vail and the time-hologram of Thundera shimmered and disappeared, Cheetara's thoughts went back to that day on the Dead-Dry flats, and the vibration that had pulled her to Vail's crash site. And she did, indeed, understand.


	7. Chapter 7

Panthro uncrossed his arms and turned as he heard the rustle of cloth behind him, then stepped out of the bright morning sunlight and into the shadowy coolness of the cave he'd been guarding. Three turnings of the sun had occurred, and each sunrise found him standing in the jagged opening, attuned to the area around the cave for any activity. So far, nothing had happened.

After Vail's extraordinary feat in Cats' Lair, Lion-O had surmised (not unreasonably) that the use of such magic might attract unwanted attention from others who might have the ability to pick up on Vail's "vibrations" and trace them to the Thundercats. Against the protests of Cheetara, and ignoring the uncertain looks of WilyKit, WilyKat and Tygra, Lion-O ordered Panthro to take the Thundertank and drive Vail a good distance away, then watch and wait for him to awaken.

In those three days, Panthro had watched with some alarm as Vail's body weight, already low due to his recovery from the crash, dropped at an astonishing rate. He'd tried to feed him, to give him water, or at least to wake him, all without success. He reported the situation back to Cats' Lair with obvious concern, but nothing could be done; the Thundercats did not possess advanced enough medical care to treat Vail in his incapacitated state.

"Finally," Panthro sighed. He knelt beside Vail and pushed a small bowl of water closer to him. "Please, drink."

He helped the weakened stranger to turn over onto his side, then pushed the bowl under his chin. Vail's mouth and nose dropped into the water, almost all the way to his closed eyes, and Panthro winced and held his head up in order to allow him to drink. The slow, invalid way in which Vail managed to lap up the liquid brought a level of sympathy that Panthro- who had once been in such a weakened state himself, after an accident- didn't expect to feel.

Finally, Vail stopped drinking and Panthro laid him back down on the rough dirt floor of the cave, and stood up again. Vail half-opened his eyes and looked around, then let out a low chuckle.

"Exiled," he croaked. "Again."

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call this a-"

Vail's harsh exhale of laughter cut him off. "I know it when I see it. Been here. Too many times." He swallowed a few times, then continued. "Lion-O's orders, correct?"

Panthro nodded. "But then, you also said that you intended to leave after you showed us… what happened with Mumm-Ra."

"So you've done me the favor of relocating me, in my unconscious state." He waved a hand in the air, not requiring an answer. "That's all right. At least you didn't dump me in here like so much garbage."

Panthro knelt beside him again, this time moving a bowl of meat-filled soup nto reach. He once again helped him onto his side. "Try and eat something. You've gotten far too thin."

"How many days?" he inquired.

"Three."

Vail blew out a mouthful of air. "Damn."

"What?"

He didn't reply, and simply focused on the now-difficult task of consuming the food laid out next to him. It took him quite some time to half-finish the cold meal. Panthro, for his part, found relief in the fact that he wouldn't have to throw out yet another day's worth of food; he had never been fond of waste, but what food he'd poured out only lasted so long, despite the coolness of the cave.

When Vail had finished and Panthro cleared away the bowls, then helped him to sit up, the two sat across from one another in silence.

"Clearly, you didn't expect to be out for this long," Panthro remarked. "So what's the matter?"

"What's the matter," Vail repeated. "My own mortality, for starters. I mentioned that my people grow younger as we travel in time. Not at a rapid rate, mind you, but enough to make us seem ageless. Well, it has been some time since I have traveled. As a result, I am now older than I have ever been. And the recovery time that my body has when I am in a younger state is absent. One more strain, one more trauma, and I do stand a very good chance of dying."

"Why is that a problem?"

"Why is time travel a problem? Coming out into a world without any idea where you are, when you are, relying strictly on the vibrations that directed you there? It's dangerous. While I can sense where I am supposed to go, and I obey that calling more often than not, I have no idea what to do when I get there. What risks are present. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've emerged into the middle of a battlefield or have been seen stepping out of thin air, to the fright of different beings throughout the universe." He paused. "That's why I came to this planet in the Thundercats pod. I could sense it was critical that I come here, but I dared not risk my usual method of traveling."

Panthro gave him a sharp look. "'Critical'?"

"You are in danger," Vail said in a low voice. "I can only think of one danger that would radiate so strongly along the waves of the universe. It is a danger that cannot be killed, that cannot be stopped. One that can only be put to rest in temporary measures. And it truly is the one thing that the Thundercats must always battle."

"Mumm-Ra," Panthro whispered.


	8. Chapter 8

"What's going on?"

Cheetara couldn't help but jump a little as the voice disrupted the silence of the hallway. She had just closed Vail's door and begun to walk to her own room, only to be encounter Lion-O's angry voice behind her. She turned with as much dignity as she could muster.

"Why are you coming to Vail's room? Did something… happen between you two?" he asked in a more demanding tone.

"Not that it's any of your business," she replied with narrowed eyes, "but, no."

"So what were you doing in his room, then? Do you miss him?"

Cheetara turned and started to walk away, only to have Lion-O follow her.

"You two spent far too much time together," Lion-O said in a low voice. "I thought it best that he no longer remain around. As a distraction."

She stopped and spun around. "Why? Is it because you think that I am yours?" she challenged as she took a defiant step towards him. "Because you are wrong in that assumption. I was never brought here to be your bride, or the mother of your children. We were chosen to come with you because of our unique survival skills. We were sent with you so that we might protect you from harm. And nothing more. Certainly not for… mating purposes."

Cheetara stumbled over the words, then pressed her lips together as she watched Lion-O's hands form into fists.

"I had thought," Lion-O replied in an equally tense voice, "that it might be a possibility. Our people have to continue on somehow, don't they? You are a fully developed female—"

"And you are still a child inside."

"A child that is growing," he challenged, "to match the body that I now possess."

"I am not yours!" Cheetara shouted. "I was never yours!"

Cheetara stomped away before Lion-O could even begin to defend himself. Her words left him stunned, and he went back to his room with one hand pressed against the side of his head in confusion.

Once he closed the door, Lion-O stood in front of the full-length mirror. He stared at his handsome reflection for some time, his breathing slow and controlled. When he had left Thundera, he had possessed a child's body—one that only hinted at the powerful muscular structure and handsome features that he would later develop during the long space journey. But Cheetara? Ah, he had had always known Cheetara to have a woman's shape.

Lion-O couldn't help but question what Cheetara might have seen in Vail that she did not see in him.

"Is that why I sent him away?" he asked himself. "Jealousy?" He gave a sharp shake to his head. "No. It is because he is not a Thundercat, and he may very well put us in danger with his magic ways. It's that simple."

"We all make mistakes, Lion-O…"

Lion-O started, then relaxed. Snarf, lying in his bed in the corner, put one hand under his furry chin.

"Snarf! I'm sorry, I didn't know you'd be in here."

"Just thought I'd take a little nap." He paused. "Lion-O, you are the Lord of the Thundercats. And you know that I would never question your judgment…"

He crossed his arms. "But…?"

"Snarf, snarf." Snarf rubbed at his nose in obvious discomfort and gave him a cautious look. "Well, I was just wondering. Did you consult with Jaga about Vail? He probably knew more than we do. Snarf. Snarf."

"Excellent idea, Snarf! I shall go to the Sword Chamber immediately and see if I can summon him!"

Snarf watched Lion-O open the door and rush out into the hallway, then sank back down into his bed with a frown.

"You could've asked Snarf about Vail," he pouted. "Maybe Snarf knew things, too. After all, who was on Thundera longer, the Thundercats or the Snarfs?" He snorted. "Snarf. Snarf."

Lion-O sealed himself in the Sword Chamber, to ensure that he had privacy from the other Thundercats. He stood with his back to the Sword of Omens and Claw Shield, then closed his eyes.

"Jaga, I need your guidance. I have made a decision that others have questioned. They dare not say anything to challenge my order, but I have seen it in their eyes. Was it the right call? You know that my intention is to keep the Thundercats safe, and this stranger may have been lying to us-"

The air in front of Lion-O shimmered, and he watched with both awe and relief as the spirit of Jaga materialized in front of him.

"He showed you the truth, Lion-O," Jaga informed him. "If only it were not the truth," he added in a sad tone. "His people would have been a tremendous asset in our ongoing fight against Mumm-Ra. Perhaps Thundera would still be intact, had we enlisted their help."

Lion-O blinked. "Was I wrong to send him away, Jaga?"

"Lion-O, you have many things to learn when it comes to leading your people. One lesson that you must remember from this is that you cannot operate from a realm of fear. Fear blinds you to possibility, and to the world around you. You feared Vail, and thus, you sent him away. And now, you place yourself in even greater danger."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you not stop to think," Jaga asked him, "that he has a purpose in being here? That he was guided here for a reason?"

Jaga's image shuddered and faded away, leaving Lion-O alone again. In that complete silence, it seemed to Lion-O that he felt something inside his head that he'd never felt before- or that he'd never noticed before.

"Vail's vibrations," he whispered to himself. "But how is it that I can sense this thing? And what does it mean…"

He slowly turned to face the Sword of Omens and Claw Shield. The humming-like sensation in his head seemed to grow and expand within him, and without any real idea why, he reached over, put on the Claw Shield, then picked up the Sword of Omens and held it up.

"Sight Beyond Sight…" Lion-O called up the incantation and the crossbars of the sword curled up, to give him the extrasensory vision that he required at that moment.


	9. Chapter 9

In most cases, "Sight Beyond Sight" gave Lion-O to see events happening at that moment, and far beyond his normal vision's threshold. But this time, something shifted in the process that he'd grown accustomed to. The Sword of Omens tried to obey the Lord of the Thundercats, but the Eye of Thundera seemed to struggle against the sword's wishes. Lion-O squinted his eyes and tightened his grip as the Eye widened to red, then shifted to blue and moved to one side, creating a crescent moon shape.

Lion-O gasped as Mumm-Ra rose in front of him. The enemy of the Thundercats had been in mid-flight, but suddenly stopped, his wrappings suspended snake-like in the air around him and his blood-red cloak flapping in the wind. Mumm-Ra let out a roar and held one hand out in front of him.

"Who is watching me?" Mumm-Ra demanded. "I can feel you here-" He let out an evil laugh and held up a golden club-like object in his hand. "No matter. You, unknown spirit, will get to witness the ultimate destruction of the Thundercats!"

With an angry shake of his head at the unknown force before him, and after yet another roar of anger, Mumm-Ra charged forward and the vision provided by the Sword of Omens dissipated.

Lion-O dropped the sword in pure shock, and it clattered to the metal floor of the chamber and shrank to its usual size.

"He could see me!" Lion-O gasped. "Well, no," he corrected himself, "he could sense me. But that has never happened before. It's as if the vision was almost… shared, somehow! Why-"

The unexpected sound of Tygra's excited voice, over the intercom by the door, disrupted his thoughts.

"Lion-O! Panthro needs to talk to you now!"

Lion-O scooped up the sword, put it and the Claw Shield on his hip, and dashed out of the chamber. A minute later, he made it to the Control Room, where Tygra, WilyKit and WilyKat stood guard.

"What's going on?" he demanded.

"It's Vail," WilyKat informed him. "And Panthro."

WilyKit piped up. "Vail says that Mumm-Ra is coming!"

The pieces clicked together for him at that moment: the experience that he'd had back in the Sword Chamber had, indeed, been a shared vision. The Eye of Thundera, the stone of Vail's ancestors, had called to him just as the Sword of Omens had obeyed Lion-O's command for Sight Beyond Sight. His initial fears about Vail's command over the Eye rose again, but this time the thought became tempered by Jaga's words, and the realization that the warning had been given to both of them. This had turned out to be a cooperation between the Sword and the Eye… not a threat to the Thundercats that he'd first seen it as.

Lion-O nodded to WilyKit. "Yes, Mumm-Ra is coming. I just saw him through the Sword of Omens. He-"

"He has something with him, Vail said," Tygra interrupted. He stood up and shrugged his shoulders. "That's all Panthro told us. They're on their way back here." He hesitated. "I'm sorry. I know that you banished Vail from here. Should I tell them not to come?"

"No," Lion-O instructed. "It's best that we have both him and Panthro back here. Where is Cheetara?"

"Behind you," she said as she stepped into the control room. "What's going on?"

"There's trouble. Mumm-Ra is coming back, only this time he's got something different with him. Something that he said would bring about our ultimate destruction."

Lion-O turned towards the nearest monitor, where WilyKit had brought up the image of the ThunderTank rolling back towards Cats' Lair. Next to her, WilyKat used the other monitor to keep an eye on the direction that Mumm-Ra would be coming from.

"No sign of Mumm-Ra so far," he reported.

"Good," Tygra replied. "Let's hope Panthro can get here before Mumm-Ra does. Whatever he's bringing with him, he seems quite sure that it will-"

A sudden, tremendous thud echoed throughout Cats' Lair, which knocked Lion-O, Cheetara and Tygra off their feet, while WilyKit and WilyKat grabbed at the control panels for support.

"What was THAT?!" Cheetara shouted.

"It felt like an earthquake!" Tygra rushed back to his station and sat down. "The whole of Cats' Lair seemed to be pulled out of the ground!" He checked his readings. "No, the structure is still in place, but-"

Yet another indescribable and monstrous THUD crashed against Cats' Lair, and Lion-O's thoughts went back to the object that he'd seen Mumm-Ra carrying.

"It's Mumm-Ra!"

WilyKat gestured wildly at the monitor. "How can that be? I can't see him!"

"He's invisible!" Lion-O replied. "That's what the club is! It's a tool of invisibility, as well as being a weapon. As long as he's holding it, we can't see him!"

"It's giving him tremendous power, whatever it is," Tygra chimed in, his eyes wide with alarm. "Another couple of blows like that, and Cats' Lair will be reduced to rubble!"

Cheetara's body suddenly let out a tremendous shver, and she froze with her hands up in front of her, the fingers spread apart like claws.

"It's a Golden Shishpar," she said in a dream-like voice. "The most ancient of weapons from Egypt, and instilled with all the strength found in the tectonic shifting of the continents."

Everyone gave her an odd look as she shook herself free from the momentary trance. She shivered and crossed her arms over her body.

"That was Vail!" she announced. "He reached out and spoke through me."

Lion-O reached out a hand to her. "Are you all right?"

She took a cautious step away. "I'm fine. Wait- let me see if I can make contact again."

Cheetara closed her eyes, and her body let out another full shiver.

"Vail says we have to get out of here. Cats' Lair is going to fall if we remain, and it will bury us within it. Vail says we have to be out in the open, and spread apart. Make more than one target. The Golden Shishpar is a weapon of force, not precision. And Mumm-Ra has not yet learned how to wield it properly-"

A third blow, ill-placed that time, shook the mountainside into which Cats' Lair had been built.

"Well, come on!" Lion-O ordered. He waved his arm, and the Thundercats rushed towards the nearest exit.


End file.
